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Wednesday, 12 October 2016

Tom Wright often relies on an interesting and famous lecture by Ernst Kasemann in 1953, as hermeneutical background for serious historical Jesus studies. Wright usually offers Bultmann's "gemeinde theologie" and "non-historical Jesuses" as the fertile soil for Hitler and the Nazi ideology. As someone who has benefitted from Wright's scholarship, including his work on critical realism and historical methodology, my South African experience paints a different picture when it comes to the motivation to engage in historical Jesus studies.

Johann Heyns (renowned professor of Systematic Theology, who studied under Hendrik Berkhouwer in Amsterdam) was an early prophetic voice against apartheid, while at the same time being quite sceptical about historical Jesus studies. He became famous for his Kingdom of God theology, developed as a systematic theologian, which provided an hermeneutical framework for a socially just society. There can be little doubt that the latter contributed to a relatively calm and smooth political transition from old to new South Africa.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Heyns

Beyers Naude, formerly head of the Afrikaner Broederbond, and later famous anti-apartheid activist, in later life indicated that it was BB Keet, his Systematic Theology professor at Stellenbosch, that laid the foundation for his theological dissent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyers_Naud%C3%A9

It could be argued that it was Systematic Theologians, and not a large majority of South African New Testament biblical scholars, who confronted the "non-historical Jesuses" of the old South Africa.
Personally, I am in favour of historical Jesus studies, but thinks Tom should probably nuance his 1953 Kasemann prop in light of the South African counter story ...

Latest Publications

Frederik S. Mulder, "The Reception of Paul's Understanding of Resurrection and Eschatology in the Epistle to Rheginos: Faithful Paulinism, or Further Development?" in eds. Dan Batovici and Kristin de Troyer, Authoritative Texts and Reception History. Aspects and Approaches (Leuven: Brill, 2016), pp. 199-215 http://www.brill.com/products/book/authoritative-texts-and-reception-history

About Me

I am Frederik Mulder and teaches theology and biblical studies at Winchester University since September 2016. I have a PhD in New Testament and Reception History from Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands (April 2015). My supervisor was Jan van der Watt, and external examiners Ulrich Busse and Hennie Stander. I also hold an MA in Biblical Studies from Durham University with a mini dissertation on the reception of the resurrection in Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Marcion. My supervisor was Francis Watson.

Before moving to the UK in 2007, I acquired an MTh in New Testament from Pretoria University, South Africa, in 2006, where I also completed my BTh in 2004.